As you can see I was quite loaded up with forty pounds of gear. I had skis, boots, helmet, gps, compass, knife, swiss army knife, map, whistle, car keys, wallet, radio, flashlight, food formerly known as a pb and j sandwich, pretzels, cookies, ski pants, jacket, t shirt, hot chilis top, ski socks, video camera, digital camera, hat and two nalgene bottles. I stepped on the scale last night and I weighed 205 pounds with the pack. I will try and give a brief description of my day. Woke up and drove via the Kancamagnus Highway to Pinkham notch, waited for Kate and Mark and began the hike. It took almost two hours to hike up to the base of the bowl and I was quite exhausted. The atmosphere once there was amazing, because of so much activity going on from the skiiers climbing up to the cheering crowd. I hung out at the base for a while to catch my breath and get the muscles in my legs prepared for some more hiking but with ski boots this time. I was able to watch people ski down and even saw a couple guys go down on sleds. There were a ton of dogs all over the place and most of the dogs were labrador retrievers, which made me want to go out and get one, but I don't have a house or enough time for a dog yet. I finally headed up with Mark and made it to the top after some steep climbing. I was a bit nervous for my first run since I hadn't skiied in three weeks, but I made it down in one piece. It was rather anti-climactic after all of the hiking, but now I can say I did it. After a little bit of rest it was time for another run, and I began the steep climb again. On the way up I was talking to the guy in front of me, it turns out he was the guy that went down on a saucer earlier in the day. While waiting at the top a black lab climbed up to us and ended up running down the hill, it was amazing that he made it all the way up there. After hanging out at the top for a while, I headed down for my second run, which was again uneventful. I thought about taking a more difficult trail, but decided it might not be the best idea. Once at the bottom I ran into the saucer guy again and showed him the video of his run. One observation I made was that there were a lot more girls around my age there than I thought there would be. After packing my gear back, I began my descent. It was okay, but my legs were exhausted. In my state of fatigue, I kept rolling my ankles on rocks and didn't hurt them too much until I was about a quarter mile from the bottom and rolled my right ankle pretty bad (see pictures below). I limped the last bit and finally took that damn pack off, before hopping in the car and driving to Ben & Jerry's for my reward for myself. It was a great day and I am glad I finally skiied the infamous Tuckerman Ravine. Check out the Tuckerman Ravine Slideshow
Now I am going to show some graphic pictures. They are pictures of my feet, notice how the right ankle is swollen compared to the nice healthy left ankle. Now if I could just find my air casts I will be all set.
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